January 9, 2015

Year 2014 for Bollywood is a game changer in many ways. There are many important changes we have seen in last 12 months. As year goes by we look into what are the major transition Bollywood is going through. Will it be same in 2015, we will also share our point of view.

Here are top 5 picks that changed Bollywood in many ways in 2014 -

5. Big variations in Business figures of films. Year 2014 will be remembered as another year where we have seen big variation in box office numbers of film after 2012, 2013. But as year ended we see a positive impact in box office collection. First, Kick saw a variation of around 17-18 crore from various sources, whereas Happy New Year saw around 22-23 crore. But biggest of them is Bang Bang whose lifetime numbers varied from 140+ crore nett to 180+ crore nett across different sources, portals and even officials included.

However as year ended PK changed it for good as there official numbers are tracked by Rentrak and with that we saw every site, sources, distributors, officials reported near about same numbers. What we expect in 2015: Hope we see more of PK like business tracking in future big films also.

4. Young Male Stars Coming into their own. Bollywood rides on 6 big stars in last few years and also in present times. They are the Khans trio, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar and Ajay Devgn. 2014 missed Ranbir Kapoor but he still can't be said in that same league. However he is a force to reckon with now. Apart from Ranbir, 2014 saw rise of stars like Ranveer Singh, Arjun Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Varun Dhawan as next gen star.

These new stars rise so much in 2014 that they kept Shahid Kapoor who is in Bollywood for years much behind. Arjun Kapoor and Sidharth Malhotra got their first 100 crore film in 2 States and Ek Villain respectively, whereas Varun Dhawan's Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania almost collected 80 crore nett. What we expect in 2015: We can see Bollywood fan base now embracing new age stars and see that happening again in 2015 also.

3. Young Female Stars Coming into their own. Just like male part also, Bollywood saw a rise in new age stars in female part also. Alia Bhatt, Shraddha Kapoor and Parineeti Chopra lead that race in 2014.

Where Alia gave big hits like 2 States, Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania, Shraddha managed a monstrous Hit in Ek Villain. Parineeti had a much smaller but yet significant Hasee Toh Phasee. What we expect in 2015: We expect them to rise further and hope others also join them.

2. Big hike in ticket prices with different releases in a same calendar year. Year 2014 saw Jai Ho one of the biggie of the year returning to normal ticket prices which is significantly lesser than 2013 biggie like Dhoom 3, Chennai Express and Krrish 3. But that was not the case for other biggies like Kick, Happy New Year, Bang Bang and more recently PK. Kick got a hike in ticket price from regular films with around 5-10%. Bang Bang ticket prices remained same with Kick. Happy New Year further saw an average increase in 5% hike in ticket prices from Bang Bang. But sad part is PK ticket price hike and that also significant.

Average ticket price hike of PK is touted to be around 10-15% which is significant. At places hikes are around 25-30% which is unimaginable. Many said a brand like Rajkumar Hirani and Aamir Khan command that position in market. But would have been nice if ticket price are kept normal, may be we have seen more footfall in ticket counters. May be overall box office numbers would have been even more than the present record numbers because of higher footfalls in theaters. What we expect in 2015: Hope sanity prevails in 2015 and ticket prices are kept normal so that more no. of footfalls seen in theaters. Even if there is hike, then it should be more because of necessity of exhibitors to maintain their maintenance cost, rather than need of makers. Hope some new rules come for that in coming days to check it.

1. Content is the king. Year 2014 will most be known for many films which went onto become successful on content power rather than star presence. Films like Action Jackson and Kill Dil bombed at box office because of weak content despite having A list star cast. On the other hand films like Queen, Mary Kom, Mardaani, went to become successful on merit itself.

Also, films like 2 states with just reasonable star cast went to become a huge hit on good word of mouth. Even big film like PK stormed box office week after week because of the content power. No doubt combination of Aamir Khan and Rajkumar Hirani are the main driving force for that film to take big opening a box office, but it is the content of the film which drive it days after days at ticket counters after the initial euphoria. What we expect in 2015: Hope film makers of Bollywood will now look into 2014 and will make better good films and invest money on that, rather than on promotions and marketing.

Yes, there are few more other important changes in 2014, but above mentioned are ours most important game changers. Do, let us know your thoughts!